This is a waltz about Nana, a stray cat that primarily lived in the public garden next door to my backyard. She was 12 when I met her, and she had a clipped ear. That meant that NY animal control fixed her, apparently after her fourth litter. You could see her family all over the block. I fed her basically every day for almost two years, but she would also follow me around when I would weed the garden.
She was a stone cold thug. Preemptive no holds barred street fighter. Now after a few months she would let me rub her belly, but if another outdoor cat came near she would call them out and toss the gauntlet. She actually fatally injured the cat that broke her legs.
Last summer she became gravely wounded from a dangerous scrap with another feral cat, and she was forced to set camp beside an old trash can surrounded by rusty barb wire in my back yard. At least one of her back legs was broken, and she hadn't eaten in a while. I fed her by hand for about a week. She got better, then worse, then not so worse, then she died. I was at work when she poassed and it was so hot out by the time I got home from work to find her, the smell, the whole thing, was awful.
Frankie and I wanted to bring her to the public garden next door to bury her. That's where she lived for a decade, but she was too far decomposed, it was over 95 degrees out, so she would have to stay in my backyard.
We all loved that cat, she loved us, she loved the neighborhood, and by god she was the wrong chick to mess with.
About this track, Dan did a lot of the arrangement. The slide added so much, and he sort of built the rhythm of the band, which Sarah filled out. The Uke fills that hi middle n a good swinging way.
Performers:
Dan Greenwood: Slide Tenor
Dan Greenwood: Guitar
Dan Greenwood: Washboard
Dan Greenwood: Vocals
Sarah Moskowitz: Uke
Jeff Burns: Steel String Banjo
Jeff Burns: Vocals
Black Wood Pecker: supporting vocals
For more on Lonesome D String Band: @lonesomedstringband
For more on Sarah check out: @sarahmouse
and also @samisarah
Soon there should be a version with singing sung!
Lyrics:
Buried the Cat
When we met she wore black and white
She, would only come out at night.
She would scratch across the hot pepper plants
Lie in the sun, and stair at the ants
Frankie told her to not go far
She stood like a giant and ruled the yard
She’s seen enough to exact the price
14 years of snow and ice
Once she walked with flowers all in a daze
Her wild green eyes, ran through a maze
She limped to the window and she fell off her feet
I brought food for her to eat
Frankie told her to not go far
She walked on glass and ruled the yard
She saw everything once, and saw it twice
Showed her respect with a pile of dead mice
She took a seat in twisted barbs of wire
Curled in the sun, like a funeral pyre
Lying there, her legs were knotted together
passed out from pain and dreaming of feathers
Frankie told her to not go far
After work I buried her in the yard
The birds came out and they started to sing
For now she can’t catch anything.

@dabluroom: Thank you very much. Makes my eyes water too, I didn't make up a single leg of that story. A funny side note though, I could tell she was decomposed so I took the darkest sunglasses I had and smudged dirt over them. Once I realized I had to do everything by hand so to speak, I didn't want to see the gore. I could smell it plenty,but she was falling to pieces. Can't recommend dirty sunglasses enough.

@lonesomedstringband: your too nice Dan. Yeah I get nervous with the vocals. I've done singing with my buddy Aaron at the Oktave Doctors, but Ive been too scared to sing on my songs. I have another tune i wrote about a year ago called "there you go again" about hanging out with the wrong kind of friends. We should do that one soon. I gotta say I have had such a rough year, but today went perfect. Praying mantises hatched, the old guard was mixing latin percussion in the garden, and I had a great day at work. All that, and 3 pairs of pants and a metal kazoo came in the mail. I almost forgot the clarinet reeds.

Jeff, been meaning to ask... is this your debut on lead vocals? Favorable reception so far indicates yours indeed was the right voice for this, as I knew all along... great mixing, too, love the churchy feel (in terms of where it sounds like they're being sung) on the backing vocals.